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King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (Amiga)
King's Quest VI for the Amiga by Revolution Software. It is built from the ground up using the Virtual Theatre engine (used in other Revolution games), with assets derived from the SCI versions. Behind the scenes The Amiga version of KQ6 was outsourced by Sierra to Revolution Software in Britain (later known for the Broken Sword adventure game series). Rather than using SCI, revolution chose to recreate the game using their Virtual Theatre engine due to poor performance of Amiga SCI. Besides using only 32 colors for its graphics, the Amiga port contains several gameplay differences from the PC version of the game. A number of puzzles, animations, and locations were cut out or altered, in order to reduce the number of disks the game used--which nonetheless clocked in at ten. The title screen loads differently than in the SCI versions of the game, there are only two options, restore and new game, and has a different theme music (the Beast's Theme), and no Sierra Logo. KQ6 on Amiga has a different icon bar, different inventory graphics, and a different text font than in any other version of the game. There is no option in the icon bar to select the last-chosen inventory item, nor is there a way to bring up an options menu. These buttons have been replaced by individual Save and Load buttons, and by a counter showing the player's score. Although certain puzzles were removed, the game's maximum point total remains 231. Differences *Text colors are different for different characters such as the red and white queens. *The Sense Gnomes appear when Alexander first teleports to the Isle of Wonder, instead of showing up when he tries to go further inland. *The spider's web on the Isle of Wonder does not appear on its own close-up screen. Rather, the loose thread and the scrap of paper (which, in this version, only appears after Alexander obtains the rare book) are dealt with on the overall view of the spiderweb and Bookworm's home. Plus, we do not get a glimpse of the rare book's missing page, nor a close-up of the scrap of paper reading LOVE, in this version. Instead, extra narration added by Revolution describes the contents of these excised art assets. *The text of the spellbook is shown in narrative text boxes, not on a special close-up screen of the book's pages. Casting the spells is done by using the book on the inventory item to be enchanted. *The Cliffs of Logic were reduced to three riddles, namely the Stones of Stealth ("four men standing in a row") button puzzle and the two riddles which use the Ancient Ones' alphabet. The Genie does not appear on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain, and in place of the deadly nightshade bush is the peppermint leaf bush (thus, there is no dark cave which Alexander must traverse to get the mint leaf). *When dying, there is no cutscene of Alexander passing through the Realm of the Dead, although the Underworld gate guard does appear on the death message screen. *The Druids on the Isle of the Mists will not attempt to sacrifice Alexander until he enters their stone circle and disrupts their ceremony. *The wandering spirits in the Land of the Dead which can kill Alexander if they get too close have all been removed. *The Riddle Gate in the Underworld was cut out entirely, as was the "Drink Me" potion from the Isle of Wonder. Instead of Shamir's lamp being shown to the player when Alexander fakes his death, it is visible when the Genie first reports to Alhazred about Alexander's purchase of the magic map. *The Castle of the Crown sequence is very different from any other version of KQ6. Although Alexander can visit the Realm of the Dead and restore Cassima's parents, when he enters the castle via the magic-paint doorway, he is deposited in the foyer (by way of the kitchen). The puzzles that follow, until Alexander interrupts the wedding, are those of the short path in regular KQ6, wherein Alexander explores the castle's second floor. *Because Alexander cannot visit the castle basement, several puzzles were deleted or changed. For instance, there is no female ghost in the Realm of the Dead, since Alexander cannot visit the dungeon and give her handkerchief to the boy ghost. As well, since the portrait nail will always be available to players, Alexander cannot play the bone xylophone in the Land of the Dead and obtain the skeleton key. *Giving the replica of the Genie's lamp to Jollo must be done in Ali's bookstore, where Jollo will return despite the fact that his dialogue (taken from the PC original) suggests otherwise. Inside the castle, being captured by the guards even once results in an instant "game over." Alexander cannot escape from the prison cell, because the prison cell is not included in this version! *In the Amiga finale, Alexander purses the fleeing Alhazred without being prompted by the player (a change which allowed Revolution to omit the backgrounds of the castle tower's lower staircases). During the swordfight, Alexander also knocks Alhazred out on his own, again unprompted. In several instances, the Amiga version has extra and alternate character dialogue which is not present in the PC version. Although some of this text was added by Revolution to replace art assets that were taken out, much of it is additional dialogue that simply did not make it into the final PC release. *For instance, when questioned by Alexander, the Ferryman talks about how few visitors come to the Green Isles. *When the serving women arrive at the Castle of the Crown entrance, the canine guards comment on the lavishness of the wedding feast to come, instead of giving the PC version remark that the "serving wenches are always late." *There is extra narration and dialogue in the endgame sequence, both when the Genie-as-Cassima orders Saladin to kill Alexander and when Alexander knocks out Alhazred at the very end of the games. See Also *KQ6 Transcript (Amiga) *KQ6 Walkthrough (Amiga) *KQ6 Amiga point list Category:KQ6 Category:Games